Insurance News

Looking for a new way to spread the cost of your home contents and buildings insurance? Pay As You Go home insurance, a new and unique product for Fair Investment Company, could be a useful way to add flexibility and simplicity to your home insurance payments. more

New research from price comparison site Gocompare.com suggests that a surprisingly high number of people - 1 in 5 householders - have lied or omitted information on their home insurance application. more

Saga home insurance: 1,000s of holiday homeowners uninsured

19 May 2010 / by Rachael Stiles

Thousands of over 50s holiday homeowners are putting themselves at "huge financial risk" by failing to get holiday home insurance for their property, says Saga.

According to Saga home insurance, 10 per cent of holiday home owners do not have holiday home insurance in place, while nearly 20 per cent who do have it have failed to review their policy in the last three years to ensure they are still adequately covered, and some have never reviewed their policy.

Because holiday homes are often left empty for months at a time, Saga home insurance warns that they are highly vulnerable to burglars; and, if something went wrong, such as burst pipes, and nobody was there to fix it immediately, this could become extremely expensive to repair.

The average holiday home owner spends about a month a year in their holiday home, so properties are often left for long periods, susceptible to burglary and vandalism, Saga home insurance warns.

Saga's research also found that more than 160,000 over 50s who took out holiday home insurance for their European property in pounds Sterling could be caught underinsured due to the weak pound.

The Euro has fallen 25 per cent against the pound since January 2007, Saga explains, which could leave possessions underinsured – for example, possessions valued at £10,000 three years ago would have equated to €15,069, but in today's currency market, £10,000 of cover would only provide €11,050 of cover.

The cost of replacing the items is also likely to have increased with inflation, leaving holiday home owners out of pocket.

Andrew Goodsell, executive chairman of Saga Group Ltd, commented: "Holiday homes are often left vacant for periods of time making them especially vulnerable. It is therefore important that people regularly check their level of insurance to ensure that they are protected for the full value of their property and possessions."

Saga holiday home insurance comes with no limit on cover for when the property is unoccupied, so the policyholder will be covered even when it is left vacant. It also offers £25,000 for loss of rent, and up to £2million for legal liability cover.